Originally Posted by
DuckDodgers
Incorrect, AIR 5376 Phase 3.2 (HUG 3.2) Reassessment revised this to 10 airframes only from the original plan of 49. The remaining airframes have been managed out to a max of 6,000hrs or a specific Fatigue Life Expended Index (FLEI) of 0.64 for ARDU jets, 0.85 for all non-CBR jets, and 1.0 for CBR jets through restrictions on use, scheduling and monitoring. The RCAF have received the 18 jets with the lowest FLEI.
I stand corrected, thanks!
As for synthetic vs live training, I almost hate saying this, but you can actually get more benefit from the sim these days than you can against
most live red air presentations. Unless you invest in a modern and capable aggressor fleet as discussed above, you've just got a bunch of bizjets cruising around in the 20s at 0.5M and some mates in actual fighters who are probably flying fuel-conserving profiles in their assigned blocks (usually!) with set tactics and action ranges. Blue aren't able to use all their toys, neither can Red for various reasons.
Compare that to the sim, where you can fight the "real" threat in greater numbers and use the full capabilities of your aircraft, actually throw switches and have things die, rather than arguing with the RTO.
I don't believe an 80/20 mix is the right answer by any means, but I can honestly say I have gotten far more tactically out of my last 10 sims than my last 10 flights. We need both, but I can't give you an actual percentage breakdown yet.